Yet yesterday my daughter's teacher told me that she isn't very focused. That she is possibly displaying one aspect of ADD. At school, the children are expected to pay attention to the subject matter being presented. They should not occupy their hands and eyes with something else while their ears are listening to the lesson.
Unfortunately, when the teacher is talking, my daughter is often doing something else too. Of course she is!
Her entire life she has watched me shift from one item to the next. I find it very difficult and slightly boring to only do one thing, to keep on one topic. I am usually reading several books at the same time, playing a game while I watch t.v. listening to a podcast while painting my house!Doing several things the same time feels right to me.
Yet I realize that I am frequently not in the moment. I'm also over there in that moment. Maybe I'm only half experiencing both things, rather than giving each it's fully deserved attention.
So while I think that multitasking is still something to be proud of, maybe it also needs to be put aside from time to time. Maybe single tasking, focusing on only one item, is also necessary. Maybe if I single task more often, my children will learn to do it a little better too!
Who knows, maybe I'd be a better cook if I focused on the meal and stop doing homework with the kids? Then again, if I did that, the teacher would have a new set of "issues" to discuss.
